Don't blame me, it's the language. I try to avoid unnecessary uses of he/him, and sometimes "they" works, even if its ungrammatical, but I can't stand "s/he", or randomly choosing "he" or "she" - it's too hard keeping track of whether I'm maintaining a 1:1 ratio. If a short synonym for "he or she" starts getting used, I'll be happy to jump on the bandwagon.

02-07-2008

Elysia

I think, in this case, I blame you.
You could easily have written it as:
"But the very fact that it causes bugs means the students are already punishing themselves by not indenting while writing the code."
;)

02-07-2008

cpjust

Quote:

Originally Posted by robatino

> Oh, so all students are he. I see.

Don't blame me, it's the language. I try to avoid unnecessary uses of he/him, and sometimes "they" works, even if its ungrammatical, but I can't stand "s/he", or randomly choosing "he" or "she" - it's too hard keeping track of whether I'm maintaining a 1:1 ratio. If a short synonym for "he or she" starts getting used, I'll be happy to jump on the bandwagon.

Even easier -- just call everybody "it". :D

02-07-2008

robatino

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpjust

Even easier -- just call everybody "it". :D

I know that was intended humorously, but when AI catches up to people, that might actually happen.

02-07-2008

Elysia

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpjust

Even easier -- just call everybody "it". :D

Only, that would be rude.

02-07-2008

cpjust

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elysia

Only, that would be rude.

That's why we need to add a new pro-noun to English to mean he or she but in a gender neutral way.
Do any other languages have a word for 'he or she'?

02-07-2008

laserlight

Quote:

That's why we need to add a new pro-noun to English to mean he or she but in a gender neutral way.

That pronoun, ironically, is "he".

02-07-2008

cpjust

Quote:

Originally Posted by laserlight

That pronoun, ironically, is "he".

Yeah, but that's a very old (politically incorrect) rule and it's obviously ambiguous.
They need a singular version of "they".

02-07-2008

robatino

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpjust

That's why we need to add a new pro-noun to English to mean he or she but in a gender neutral way.
Do any other languages have a word for 'he or she'?

Man, screw politically correct, what are we, a bunch of weak boned politicians?

The word is there, it's not offensive except to over-sensitive people, it works fine, and it's not fabricated based on some "PC" perception.

Just use it!!

Gosh!

02-08-2008

Elysia

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpjust

Do any other languages have a word for 'he or she'?

As you can see from the link, Japanese among one, can be very gender neutral due to words like "that someone" or "that individual" and more.
And that's one big problem when translating from japanese to english. Lots of words lose their meaning. Stupid English.

Quote:

Originally Posted by robwhit

Man, screw politically correct, what are we, a bunch of weak boned politicians?
The word is there, it's not offensive except to over-sensitive people, it works fine, and it's not fabricated based on some "PC" perception.
Just use it!!
Gosh!

Does that mean you endorse the use of "he" for all?

02-08-2008

whiteflags

English is not the only language that suffers from the problems you describe. Most languages have unique words and phrases; Japanese being no exception. English has a rich, old history and a lot of prejudices have been perpetuated, but most have words have either become antiquated or have better primary meanings in modern times. Out of all the words you could complain about, you chose the weakest ones. I've read about black people going to Japan to teach schoolchildren English, and the prejudices they face every day. Only a small-minded woman could take offense to someone not recognizing their gender 100&#37; of the time for the sake of brevity. Meanwhile, white people can still use nigger to spew garbage at another person. There are commonplace words with more dispicable etymologies. Get your priorities in order, please.

02-08-2008

Elysia

Oh, come on. Don't be a tard.
We can't do much about the situation in Japan, but I'll tell you that I don't endorse the use of the word "nigger" in any kind of sense or way. It's evil and I don't use it and I tell others to not use it, as well.
But that doesn't mean we aren't entitled to persue our own goals of gender neutrality. To some, it's an insult and rightly so. This is a free world, after all.

02-08-2008

whiteflags

You're clearly not paying attention at all.

Quote:

We can't do much about the situation in Japan, but I'll tell you that I don't endorse the use of the word "nigger" in any kind of sense or way. It's evil and I don't use it and I tell others to not use it, as well.

I bet you do. Badgering rascists is importsnt because it educates society, and no one else brings about societal change than people. My point was that your being unnecessarily critical of people who just want to use current language correctly. Or maybe you'd rather write a letter to say, the Modern Language Association and urge them to introduce some new words, instead of badgering some programmers. If you really want to do anything about it.

02-08-2008

Elysia

I understood your point perfectly fine and my point was that you were being too overly critical against it.Why can we not have a gender neutral language? It's important to me, as well as others.